‘Pig out’ is offensive says Essex pig farmer

A farmer is demanding the terms ‘pig-out’ and ‘eat like a pig’ are removed from the dictionary – claiming they’re unfair and offensive to the animals.

According to the Braintree and Witham Times, Fergus Howie, 43, who runs his family farming business Wicks Manor Farm in Tolleshunt Major, has written to the Oxford English Dictionary to demand that the “derogatory” terms are removed or redefined.

The term ‘pig-out’ is defined as ‘a bout of eating a large amount of food e.g ‘a junk food pig-out’.

Mr Howie says that despite the stereotype, pigs are no greedier than any other animals. “The fact that they associate junk food with pigs is not very good. Pigs don’t eat junk food and they are nothing to do with that.

“As a pig farmer and on behalf of the country’s pigs, we are just a little upset by the fact that people talk about ‘eating like a pig’ it is derogatory. It creates this perception that pork is a fatty meat which is completely incorrect.

“And this is what has prompted me to get frustrated that fact that people are calling pigs fat because they are not.”